The present invention relates to a drive member for the projectile head of a large-caliber, multi-purpose cartridge or multi-purpose training cartridge of the type wherein the projectile head is fastened in a form-locking manner to the drive member by a threaded connection. The invention further relates to the use of such a drive member for the production of different types of cartridges.
Large-caliber multi-purpose cartridges, as they are fired, for example, from 120 mm tank cannons, have been known for a long time. They are composed of a caliber-sized shaped charge projectile and a propelling charge casing. The projectile has a shaft member which carries a stabilizing guide mechanism and is partially seated in a propelling charge casing filled with propelling charge powder. The portion of the projectile disposed outside of the propelling charge casing (the projectile head) is connected with the shaft member by a form-locking threaded connection, with an adhesive being employed to secure the projectile head against coming loose.
Also known are multi-purpose training cartridges which are provided with the same propelling charge casing and a corresponding shaft member and guide mechanism (the drive member) as the multi-purpose cartridges. As a projectile head, however, these training cartridges are provided with a simulated multi-purpose projectile. Such projectile heads thus have the same exterior shape and the same weight as the corresponding live projectiles. However, the training projectile heads do not contain any explosives, only an inert substance.
In the past, the multi-purpose cartridges as well as the corresponding multi-purpose training cartridges have been obtained only as complete cartridges furnished by the manufacturer. The manual screwing together of the drive member and the projectile head of the cartridges by the users themselves turned out to be relatively critical because screwing together these relatively heavy and unwieldy components may easily lead to damage to the cartridge casing, for example, due to inaccurate attachment of the projectile head to the drive member or tilting of the components relative to one another, etc.
Moreover, the storage of complete multi-purpose cartridges as well as multi-purpose training cartridges results in considerable storage costs. In addition, although training cartridges are used relatively frequently and therefore generally do not experience damaging ageing phenomena in their drive members, multi-purpose cartridges stored for the case of a crisis must be disassembled to a considerable extent after long periods of storage which again produces high costs.